Drivetime in San Antonio, TX / Misleading statements!

I purchased a vehicle in San Antonio, TX 4 months ago. Reading the other complaints I would hope in time that the State of Texas wakes up to the unlawful practices of DriveTime.

Though my car is running very well, it is not because of DriveTime's mechanics. In fact the mechanics had no idea what they were doing and literally cut my horn wires.

My only reason to go to DriveTime is because I am self-employed and the dealerships in Texas want to see "real employment", why the State of Texas does not see self-employment as real is beyond me. My point I needed a car for my business, I didn't have to put very much down, I am happy that I chose wisely. My biggest complaint is that now after paying on time each month and today only being late 2 days I have had corporate call my shop over 3 times. Yes, their extremely rude their tactics are awful. Even after the manager wrote that payment was to be made on a certain date and not to call, corporate "nazis" and I am being very nice here called again.

As I stated to corporate - read customer service tactics, it pays to be nice, I am going to make sure that I don't refer anyone to DriveTime and I am going to do it until I can trade the car in or as some just give it back. Its funny to me how they state there is no grace period but state it only that the interest will compound daily yet still state they will come after the car.

Please State of Texas wake up - shut DriveTime down or at least investigate how many illegals are working for this company. There are laws.

Comments

Drivetime needs to be shut down in Florida as well. That place reminds me of Satan.....in the way that they are all nice and sweet in the showroom and promise you anything to get you to sign the paperwork, but as soon as you are off the lot, the horns come out and it suddenly gets very hot. Now, my vehicle has run pretty good in the two years we've had it. The main problem is stemming from the fact that it is a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am and has a anti-theft device called Passlock, and since we do not have the original key, sometimes when you go to start it up, it will detect that you are tampering with the car and shut off the fuel supply, therefore, not allowing your car to be started, or "stolen" and you have to wait 10 minutes to try again. This can be very annoying. This isn't even the biggest problem I have though. I was told by the salesman on the lot that it was very important to pay the first 6 months on time, to establish a good payment history and after that time if I had issues, they could help me out. Well, that was just a crock of crap now wasn't it? The bi-weekly payments are sometimes hard for me to do and I asked if I could do montly and I would even pay a little extra and I was told NO. Okay, fair enough. So, I was a little short on my payment so I paid the full payment and half of another. The following payment I did the same thing, plus some extra for fees and such. Corporate keeps calling me and its pissing me off. Once before my husband went in the dealership to make a payment and he was late by a day or so and they had someone come out and talk to him....for almost half an hour. Sheesh. It's like you can't just pay up and be done, they have to lecture you and everything. Banks who loan you money are more flexible than these bloodsuckers. I'm like, well I could call them back, but I don't feel that I should have to, since I have paid up my payment to them. What could they want besides harassing me over the phone? Also, I got tired of trying to be up front and call them if I knew I'd be short or late on a payment because they sit there and say "can't you borrow the money from someone?" Um, no, if I could I would've by now. Besides that, I pay a total of 410 a month for a car that was 4 years old when I got a hold of it. I've paid less for a newer car, even with my credit. The point is, when I got this car I was in pinch and I didn't have alot for a down payment. When I pay this vehicle off next year, I will never come within a foot of a Drivetime dealership and I would never refer anyone I cared about to them either. For those of you who know what I am talking about, when corporate calls you and they leave a message, they sound the same each time, like it's the same person calling, but they leave different names. If you call and ask for the person who called you, they are mysteriously never there. Weird.

I agree all Drive Times should be investigated and closed. I bought my car almost 3 years ago and have had nothing but problems with them every since. The car I purchased had a bad transmission and igination and was suppose to be fixed and never was. We had to spend $2,500 to get to get teh transmission rebuilt and we explained it to them they said we qualified on getting a credit for half of what we paid and now it has been over a year and nothing as been credited and so on. I have written letter and called so many times I get even more upset thinking of all teh time we have spent on this crap. They also failed to tell us that the car had been stolen before hand but what should expect from a company that rips people off. If you are smart you will never purchase a car from them in any state that they do business in. I have paid almost $22k for a car that Kelly Blue Book at the time of purchase was $12k. The company is a joke and should be reimbursing all its cusomers for the damages and stress it as creadited in our lives. I have never been able to get a hold of anyone at corporate or teh location we purchased the car from, it seems that they lie and give you fake names when you speak to someone because if you call back to follow up on something or you return thier call that person does not work there and myserously they regard your calls to them and enter notes but somehow they all disappear. BEWARE of this company and I ask everyone to spread the word to everyone you know and ever met not to buy or do business with them EVER.

The comments here are so familier to me. I too had a car from DriveTime, as did my son. We both went through the same things with them as everyone else here has. If we were one day late with our payments, the calls would start (even if we called them first to make arrangments). I once even accused them of not putting notes in their records of the conversation we would have with their customer service because with every phone call, they acted as if we had never spoken to anyone before that. We too got tired of the phone calls and stopped responding, or even calling them when we were late with our payments, because it did no good to speak to them. As far as the conditions of the cars when we first bought them; my son had immediate problems with his car overheating, and when he took it to DriveTime mechanics, they told him that the problem was not theirs to fix , because it was not part of the warranty (that was only a week after purchasing his car from them), and when he called the dealership where he bought the car, they acted like they were perplexed as to why their mechanics would say they couldn't fix it, but he was never able to get the mechanics to agree with the dealership people, so the problem never got fixed by them. The first hour after I bought my car from them, I was driving down a busy street and came to a stop at an intersection. The car started making a horrible scraping and clunking noise. I pulled into a parking lot and my son took a look at it and found that the brake caliper had lost a bolt (good thing I wasn't on the freeway). When I called the dealership, I was told that they would send a tow truck and have it towed to their mechanic shop, but that it would take three days to get it fixed. While waiting for the tow truck, my son walked to the nearest car parts store, bought the needed bolt and fixed the caliper for me (so why would it have taken DriveTime three days to fix it?) By that time, the tow truck had never shown up, so I called DriveTime back and told them that my son had fixed it. But they hadn't even called the tow truck yet - after an hour had passed!!! The car ran ok for the first couple of years after that, then it started having transmission problems - something a 4 year old car shouldn't be having already. It would not shift right away (automatic), and when it did, it would slam into gear and the engine light would come on and I would lose my passing gear. When I turned off the engine, and restart it the problem would dissappear until the next time it did that. One time it got stuck in first gear. From day one, I was suspicious that the car had been in an accident because the car always pulled to the left while driving, and when I first purchased the car, I found paperwork from a collision repair shop in the glove compartment. I suspected that the car had been in a roll-over accident because it had an area of unmatched paint from the front passenger side of the car up to the roof.

Three years later, I am now driving an older car that I purchased with cash, as is my son, and we no longer have to deal with DriveTime's harrassing calls. I am so happy to have a car sitting in my driveway that belongs to me, even it is an older car, and it is in much better condition than the one I had from DriveTime. If I have to make repairs to this older vehicle, it is nothing in comparison to the outrageous payments of over $400 a month that I was paying DriveTime, plus my insurance is much, much cheaper too! If anyone can dump those DriveTime cars, I say do it and do it now.

Drivetime is extremely unprofessional, rude, law breakers. This company filled in my name on paperwork and submitted with a unrelated signed form saying I gave permission to have my personal information released to them from my employer after I have had this car for three years. I am current in payments etc.. even though the car has not run in two years. It stems from the fact that I do not return phone calls when they start calling the day after the payment is due. I usually wait a few days to make the payment because I am so disgusted with this company. They violate the law every month...I encourage anyone who has done business with this company to checkout: http://www.driveslime.com and offer your stories / comments etc...to expose these people and bring them to justice.
Thanks.